Install and update Microsoft Security Essentials

On December 22, 2009, Microsoft announced the launch of a localized version of MSE for Russian-speaking users. Antivirus is available for all current Windows operating systems: XP (32 bit), Vista (SP1 or SP2) and Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), with the exception of Windows 8.

The installation takes a few minutes and should not cause problems even for inexperienced users. Before starting the installation, do not forget to remove any other anti-virus program from the system if it was installed earlier.

Click Next to complete all necessary installation procedures for Security Essentials.

To confirm your acceptance of the user agreement, click on “I accept”.

Install Security Essentials

Before you start installing the application, you must confirm the legality of the copy of Windows installed on your PC.

If your OS has been validated, a window will appear inviting you to start installing the antivirus program. Click Install to start the installation.

After completing the installation of Security Essentials, click Finish.

Installing Security Essentials is unusually quick and easy. No computer restarts are required. Once started, the antivirus automatically starts downloading the necessary updates, and then conducts the first scan of your computer for malicious software.

Security Essentials Update

After that, the program will start its work, modestly placed in the tray and not distracting the user with any unnecessary messages and notifications. The antivirus will remind itself only in case of detection of potential threats (a window will appear with a description of the threat and the proposed action to neutralize it) and the need to scan the computer (the tray icon will change to yellow). This antivirus can be safely called one of the most “unobtrusive” among the popular programs.

Configure and use Security Essentials

Security Essentials is designed to protect against viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojan horses. Judging by the available public tests, the brainchild of Microsoft does it very effectively. The independent lab AV-Test.org assigned the SE a “very good” rating after the antivirus detected 98% of the malicious code samples. Of course, this is not a reason to change your paid antivirus program on Security Essentials. Take into account the fact that the program under test does not contain a heuristic module, which excludes detection of absolutely new threats that have not yet been made to the latest database updates. However, the chance to “run into” such a virus is disparagingly small.

Managing antivirus is organized as it is impossible and logical. Moving on four tabs, you can perform basic operations with antivirus. The first Home tab allows you to view the most up-to-date information about the work of the antivirus and make a quick, complete or selective scan of your PC for malware.

The UPDATE tab contains information about the latest updates of the anti-virus database and provides the ability to perform an update manually.

The HISTORY tab allows you to view information about all malware found. If necessary, the story can be cleaned.

And finally, the most informative tab Settings. As the name implies, all the settings of the antivirus program are collected here. We have carefully studied all the proposed settings and recommend that all users enable the Scan Removable Drives option located in the Advanced menu. We recommend not to change all other settings. It will still not lead to any improvements in the work of the antivirus, but some inconveniences may appear.

Let’s get acquainted with all subsections of the Settings tab:

Scheduled Scan (Scheduled Scan). In this section, the user can create a computer scan schedule (specific day of the week or daily) and specify the type of scan (quick or full)

Default actions. In this section, you can configure the antivirus to perform specified actions when malicious code is detected. Moreover, the script can be set for different types of threats separately.

Real-time protection. If you need to disable Security Essentials – uncheck the item “Turn on real-time protection” and save the changes. In any other case, we do not recommend changing the settings in this section. Disabling any option will reduce system protection.

Excluded file types (Excluded files and folders). You can add file types that will not be scanned by the antivirus. For example, add * .JPG and the antivirus will ignore image files.

Excluded process. Security Essentials surveillance exclusion of those programs that the user fully trusts. To do this, click on “Add” and select the required executable file. We strongly do not recommend using this tool, since almost any file may be infected with malicious code in the future.

Advanced (Advanced). This section contains additional program settings: Scan archive files – setting the scanning of archive files in .ZIP and .CAB formats; Scan removable drivers – setting removable media scanning; Create a system restore point – when applying settings, the program will automatically create a restore point before cleaning the system. Allow all users to view the full history results – the use of this setting allows all computer users to view the history of the program.

Microsoft SpyNet. After joining SpyNet, MSE will automatically send to Microsoft additional information about the malware detected, including where it came from, actions taken by the user and MSE. By default, participation in SpyNet is disabled.

System load

Perhaps this is one of the few cases where you really do not notice the presence of antivirus in your system. The process MsMpEng.exe (AntiMalware Service Executable), on average, takes no more than 58-70 MB of RAM. The second process related to the antivirus is msseces.exe (Microsoft Security Essentials User Interface) and uses only 5-7 MB of memory at all.

After launching the quick system scan mode, the MsMpEng.exe process loads the CPU from 4 to 51%. Testing was conducted on a relatively slow mobile Intel U5400 processor, on desktop systems the consumption of resources will be altogether negligible. During normal operation of the program, it was rarely possible to fix even 2-3% of the CPU load. Needless to say – excellent optimization of work and the small amount of required resources allows you to use the anti-virus program Microsoft Security Essentials, even on low-power systems, including netbooks. All tests were performed in the operating system Windows 7 (64 bit).

Findings

Recently, the company Microsoft pleases users with more stable, fast and functional software solutions. Take at least the launch of the latest operating system Windows 7. The new OS was cheered by the whole world, which led to record sales all over the world. Why all? Windows 7 is able to work quickly and stably even on relatively weak systems. That’s why we liked Microsoft Security Essentials. After all, be a program at least three times effective in removing viruses, but if it slows down even on powerful systems with quad-core processors and gigabytes of RAM, who needs it?

Security Essentials is able to work effectively even on weak machines, has a nice interface, and is quickly and easily installed. The lack of a Russian language for such an easy-to-manage program is not a big disadvantage. The only serious disadvantage of the program is the absence of a heuristic module, but, as we said above, it is extremely unlikely that a malicious program will be installed on your computer that has not yet been added to the constantly updated program database. We recommend the program to all those who are satisfied with the basic functionality of the program and who feel sorry for paying their money for complex software products.